has anybody read this book?

https://theathletic.com/141568/2017/10/30/the-blueprint-lebron-james-promise-during-kyrie-irvings-rehab-i-will-never-leave-the-court-without-him-and-he-knows-that/

The Blueprint: LeBron James' promise during Kyrie Irving's rehab: ‘I will never leave the court without him … and he knows that'
Jason Lloyd 2 hours ago

The following is an excerpt from Jason Lloyd's book The Blueprint: LeBron James, Cleveland's Deliverance and the Making of the Modern NBA, which is on sale now ($28, Dutton/Penguin Random House)

(Kyrie) Irving fought injuries throughout his career, first his toe and then shoulder, wrist, and facial injuries. He also struggled with learning how to lead. He was asked to carry a heavy load while (LeBron) James was in Miami. He was a point guard who rarely passed and was considered a ball hog by most everyone — including his teammates. Irving insists he was doing what was asked of him to try to win games, but one of James’s first goals after arriving was teaching Irving how to be a distributor.
Once James chose to return to Cleveland, he began watching film of Irving. He knew Irving was a great young talent, but he wanted to learn his tendencies. Film study may not reveal a player’s personality, but it will expose how much a point guard can help his teammates. James saw Irving wasn’t doing much in that regard. It’s part of the reason he took the ball out of Irving’s hands early in their first year together. James was teaching Irving how to be a point guard in the NBA, when to pass and when to attack.
“I just wanted him to understand that he could mean so much more to our team by also being a playmaker for the guys that can’t play-make for themselves,” James said. “Obviously, he’s able to go through two and three guys every single possession if he wants.” Referring to their first year together, James said, “My game was all predicated on figuring out how to get these guys, and mostly Kyrie, to understand how important it is getting other guys involved. And he’s a good student. Little hardheaded at times. all are, which I expected. I expected that.”
Now, as Irving dribbled and shot on the court inside Williams’s academy, James was subtly teaching him another lesson. The Cavs had rebounded from their crushing Finals loss and survived injuries to both Irving and Iman Shumpert to start the season. Shumpert missed the first six weeks recovering from a fractured wrist he’d suffered just prior to the start of training camp. Irving returned from his knee injury December 20 against the Philadelphia 76ers.
Before and after his return from knee surgery, Irving routinely remained on the floor long after the formal portion of practice had ended, working on his shot and rhythm. James often joined him. On this day, while Irving threw up shot after shot — from the wing, the 3-point line, the corner, and all points in between —(Mo) Williams spoke for more than an hour about his gym: the office space, the full laundry services, and the small lounge.
What it lacked, however, was showers. So while Irving and James remained on the floor shooting and shooting, the rest of the sweaty Cavs stood on the sidelines or sat in the bleachers and waited. As the minutes swelled into an hour, their patience waned. Sasha Kaun, an NBA rookie, was the first to be visibly irritated. Anderson Varejao saw how mad Kaun was getting and laughed at him.
“He doesn’t get it,” Varejao joked with me. “This is life with LeBron. Sometimes you wait.”
Yet after about 20 more minutes, Varejao wasn’t laughing anymore. Now he was annoyed, too. (Kevin) Love fidgeted with his phone. Assistant coaches made dinner plans. James and Irving, however, never flinched. They simply kept shooting.
“I will never leave the court without him,” James told me. “Meaning if he’s the only person in there shooting, I’m not going to leave. I’m not. And he knows that.”
James knew teammates and coaches were getting upset, but he didn’t care. The shooting session went on so long that even Tyronn Lue, still (David) Blatt’s lead assistant, stormed back into the gym as James and Irving were concluding. “Let’s go!” Lue shouted across the gym. “This is fucking rude and disrespectful!” James chuckled and told him not to get so upset in front of the media, even though there were only a few of us there at the time.
“They can leave us. They don’t have to wait for us,” James told me later. “We know the way back.”
With LeBron, there is almost always sound reasoning behind a display. In that moment, he wanted the rest of his teammates to see how hard the two stars were working, and the more pissed they got, the more they’d remember.
“At the end of the day, late in games, the ball is going to be in our hands,” James told me. “We’ve got to be able to trust each other and our teammates have to be able to trust us. If they see us working like they always do, it gives them more trust in us. And then we have to come through for them.”
He was right. One hundred and sixty-one days later, Irving would have the ball in his hands in the last minute of Game 7 of the NBA Finals.


Jason Lloyd is the editor-in-chief of The Athletic Cleveland. He previously spent seven years covering the Cavs for the Akron Beacon Journal. His first book, "The Blueprint: LeBron James, Cleveland's Deliverance and the Making of the Modern NBA" debuts Oct. 24. Follow Jason on Twitter @JasonLloydNBA. If you liked this story, subscribe today for access to all of our ad-free content. Plans start at just $4.99 per month.

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